Archive for July 2016

An excellent public meeting hosted by Stoke Socialist Party took place last night in the Village Tavern, Stoke-on-Trent. Socialist Party, Green Party and Labour Party members attended along with union reps from CWU, Unison and other trade unionists from Unite, NUT and Usdaw.

In response to the Blairites' vicious campaign, a mood of mass support for Jeremy Corbyn's embattled leadership is developing on Merseyside. 4,000 people marched through Liverpool on Saturday 2 July under the slogan "Keep Corbyn, Build our movement".

After seven and a half years, and costing millions of pounds, the Chilcot inquiry into the Blair government's pre-invasion, invasion and occupation of Iraq is due to be published as the Socialist goes to press.

Around 250 people gathered at short notice to demonstrate their support for Jeremy Corbyn in Leeds. The demonstration was called by Momentum after discussion with the Socialist Party and others from trade unions and campaigning groups around Leeds. It showed the clear popularity of Corbyn and indeed his electability, despite what those on the right of the Parliamentary Labour Party have argued.

A demonstration on 3 July started in Trafalgar Square with a gathering of around 70 marching towards Parliament to demand votes for 16 and 17 year olds. As we marched, the crowd increased and by the time we reached Parliament Square there were hundreds chanting and marching.

In these times of big profits for landlords in the rental sector, it's not uncommon for landlords to harass tenants. A letter demanding increased rent is usually enough to send the tenants packing. But not Butterfields tenants!

In response to a threat from fascist group South Coast Resistance to march under the slogan 'Refugees not Welcome Here', over a thousand counter demonstrators arrived at the assembly point by the Bargate in Southampton on 2 July, without a fascist in sight.

Mexican police shot dead ten people, mostly striking teachers, in the southern state of Oaxaca. In response to this brutal repression teachers have blocked highways leading to fuel and other shortages.

George Osborne announced on 4 July that he would cut corporation tax by a quarter, bringing it from 20% down to just 15%. This new rate will be among the lowest in Europe, pushing forward Osborne's plan to make the UK a global tax haven.

Greater Manchester Fire Authority is planning to cut 280 firefighter jobs and 26 fire engines. Fire Brigades Union (FBU) members have been protesting these plans, including a huge lobby of the fire authority meeting which approved the cuts. To make up for the loss in staff, the firefighters that remain will be forced to work longer hours.

Only the Militant could explain to me why the Soviet Union had degenerated from its ideals of 1917. It had a programme to fight poverty around the world. Under the leadership of Militant supporters, the LPYS brought out a 'Charter for Young Workers' - a brilliant tool to fight for proper apprenticeships and better wages. I became a Militant supporter and a member of the Socialist Party when it was formed.

4,000 in Liverpool, 1,000 in Manchester, 800 in Leeds, thousands in London ... People have taken to the streets to support Jeremy Corbyn and express anger towards the MPs who are trying to force him to resign

I am from Portugal and started university in 2008, the year of the big financial crisis. Me, my friends and our entire generation felt the effects and implications of the capitalist system we live in and the failed promises it made us.

Everywhere you look there is proof that our world is afflicted by enormous inequality - on our side there is austerity, poverty and war and on the other side for the super-rich 1% there is enormous wealth.

Videos of Socialist Party - Ireland members (in the CWI) and Anti Austerity Alliance TDs (Irish MPs), Paul Murphy and Ruth Coppinger, speaking out against the Blairite coup to remove Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in Britain, and on the impact of Brexit

Being a member of the Socialist Party has not only enabled me to find my political voice but also to understand politics on a class basis, giving me confidence to fight for issues I believe in and I feel more empowered than I did before.

A massive attack has been launched on NHS congenital heart services in England. Patients, families and health workers will not accept it and we will fight back. As a parent whose 15-year old son had open heart surgery only seven months ago at one of the threatened units, Leicester Glenfield Hospital, I am furious.

Since the EU referendum sellers of the Socialist have been hitting the streets providing analysis of the rash of resignations and political crisis hitting the establishment parties, with hundreds snapping up copies. The Socialist spoke to Martin Reynolds in Waltham Forest

Following news that junior doctors in England voted by 58% to 42% to reject the terms of their proposed new working contract, health minister Jeremy Hunt is again threatening to impose the contract on them.

Socialist Party member Chas Berry, currently vice-chair of the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo), is a candidate in the union's election for national chair. Ballot papers go out on 15 July and voting closes on 25 August. Chas outlines his election programme

The first two days of Unite the Union's biennial policy conference was dominated by the attempted Blairite coup in the Labour Party. General Secretary Len McCluskey in opening the conference attacked the Blairites and made it clear it was a political attack on Jeremy Corbyn.

In the space of just one year, 2014 to 2015, the number of children living in poverty in the UK has risen by a staggering 200,000. This brings the total number to 3.9 million, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The Welsh Assembly has announced it plans to scrap Thatcher's ruinous 'right to buy' policy in Wales. The Socialist Party welcomes this move - but this alone will not be enough to solve the housing crisis.

Labour right winger Angela Eagle's bid to topple Jeremy Corbyn did not start well. Press walked out of her launch conference halfway through due to developments in the Tory leadership race. Meanwhile, her Alan Partridge-esque "I'm with Angela" Facebook meme has attracted thousands of comments. Almost every one is some variation of "#ImWithCorbyn". At time of writing, there's over 44,000 of them.

The results of the 26 June re-run general elections in Spain were without doubt very disappointing for many activists, and for broad layers of workers and youth. All opinion polls pointed to the much-coveted 'sorpasso' - ie the alternative left overtaking the ex-social democratic PSOE as the main opposition to the right-wing PP (People's Party).

Short stories on workers' struggles around the world including the fight for abortion rights in Ireland, solidarity with striking Walmart workers in China and a CWI member contesting a council seat in Brazil.

Reader's comment: Online reports of hate crime were five times higher than an average week in the seven days from the EU referendum polling day. The media and establishment want to suggest that anti-migrant abuse surged overnight purely because of the result.

The Labour right have repeatedly shown that they are prepared to dispense with democracy and the wishes of Labour Party members in order to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn. Now they have drastically changed who will be eligible to vote for him.

On 14 July workers from contractors NICO at the Fawley refinery, members of Unite, took strike action against the super-exploitation of migrant workers from Italy and Bulgaria, being paid £48 for a 10 hour shift, instead of £125.

Monday's parliamentary debate on the replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system was another illustration of the fact that the Labour Party is two irreconcilable parties in one, heading for an inevitable split

A petition online calling for an urgent labour movement conference to be convened, involving all those who support Corbyn: the trade unions, Labour Party branches and including all left and socialist organisations inside and outside the Labour Party

"Let us be honest", said Sean Hoyle, president of transport union RMT. "Why should we fear a split? I'd rather have a party with half a million members and 40 MPs who are loyal to those members, than a party led by 172 traitors. It's time for the tail to stop wagging the dog."

The next few months will decide the fate of the Labour Party. Although he claims to be 'as radical as Jeremy', leadership challenger Owen Smith is in reality the candidate of those with a vested interest in keeping Labour as a New Labour-style version of the Tories

Well over a hundred attended an enthusiastic rally for Jeremy Corbyn in Derby. But it was noticeable that one or two people were having a go, saying they would never support Labour. They were not Blairite or right wing, but were teaching assistants employed by the Labour controlled Derby council.

Trade union fightback needed: The report into Sports Direct's working practices by a House of Commons select committee shows the much acclaimed protection of workers' employment rights by the EU is worthless without the traditional workers' organisations - the trade unions - being strong enough to enforce legislation.

I've seen an explosion in sales of the Socialist since the EU referendum, I have sold 135 copies! Key to this has been getting out on the streets to talk to people, whether street campaign stalls, at demonstrations or doing our now regular paper sale at the city centre train station before our branch meeting.

The Tories want universities that meet their backbreaking 'teaching excellence framework' targets to be allowed to increase the cost of their courses with inflation. Universities including Manchester have already announced their fees will rise to £9,250 in 2017, before parliament has even considered the measure.

For a brief moment 80 years ago, in a hint of what Spain as a whole would become, Barcelona became the focus of opposition to fascism. In July 1936, 6,000 athletes arrived in the city, greeted by banners and bunting welcoming them. They were no ordinary athletes; the socialist hurdlers and the anarchist shot putters were there for the Olimpiada Popular, the People's Olympiad.

The recent failed military coup d'état in Turkey has been followed by a massive purge of the state machinery and assault on democratic rights by right-wing president Recep Erdoğan. By arresting thousands of people, sacking thousands of state employees, imposing a three month 'state of emergency' and mobilising his AKP members, Erdoğan is ruthlessly accelerating his drive towards an authoritarian regime. Workers' and left organisations must mobilise to resist these draconian moves and fight for democratic rights.

Over 60 people, mostly from the local black community, squeezed into a public meeting on 27 July to support and discuss the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. The leading guest speaker was Ryan Watson, an activist in Black Lives Matter in Chicago, who is also a member of Socialist Alternative - co-thinkers of the England and Wales Socialist Party.